Children’s Aid Foundation’s program of scholarships, bursaries helps foster children flourish after high school

Rosanne Howell, a former foster care kid, received scholarships from the Children's Aid Foundation. “That kind of financial support allows you to dream beyond the borders you came from, being a child of have-nots and constant abuse.”

All that study — that opportunity — was possible because of the scholarships she received from the Children’s Aid Foundation.

The charity launched the scholarship program in 1995, and has awarded 800 scholarships and bursaries, totalling more than $4 million, to former foster children who demonstrate the drive and desire to flourish past high school.

On Sept. 11, the foundation will honour donors and recipients at its 13th recognition night at the Royal Conservatory of Music on Bloor St. This year 269 awards were given out across Canada; $760,000 in scholarships of $2,500 to $5,000, bursaries of up to $2,000 and other recognitions for $500.

The foundation has a good track record — an 82 per cent graduation rate for scholarship recipients. Howell is just one of the success stories.

She grew up in Toronto’s community housing with a younger sister and an impoverished single mother, who herself had been in foster care from the age of 8.

Her mother was 16 when Howell was born and the Children’s Aid Society was always involved in her life.

“There was emotional and physical abuse,” says Howell. “When I hit my early teens, I became a full ward.”

At 16, while still in foster care, Howell became pregnant and she seemed destined to repeat the cycle.

But the birth of her son changed her, she says. “That’s when I really became serious about education, when I became an A student and pursued post-secondary like crazy.” Howell graduated from every program with distinction.

Foster kids are like forgotten children, particularly once they reach 18 and age out of the system, says Laura Dottori-Attanasio, a Children’s Aid Foundation board member who donated five scholarships of $5,000 this year, one in honour of each of her four children and one in memory of a friend’s child who died.

The exchange is about more than money, she says. “”Everybody needs to feel as though they’re getting some support from someone, that someone believes in them and what they do,” she says.

Tamia Kerem, 27, has thrived with that belief.

A native of Barbados, her childhood went downhill at age 10, when the grandmother raising her died. An aunt brought her to Toronto when she was 14 and within three months she was in foster care. Through all those years, school was respite.

“My only real happy time was school from 8:30 to 3 p.m.,” she says. “I could drown all my sorrows in reading and studying.”

Now married, with three children, Kerem has a social work degree and is enrolled in Centennial College’s paralegal program. She relies on the foundation’s scholarships to further her education and is grateful for the support.

As is Howell.

“That kind of financial support allows you to dream beyond the borders you came from, being a child of have-nots and constant abuse.”

To show her appreciation, Howell gives back too, volunteering with Our Voice Our Turn, the Youth Leaving Care Hearings with the Provincial Advocate for Children and Youth. They were instrumental in the recent policy changes for children and youth in and from care. A video was made with images from the hearings to one of her songs.

Howell and her partner live with her son, Michael, now a strapping 18-year-old, finishing high school and preparing for post-secondary study. She also has a 12-year-old daughter, Alise, who did a dance recital at Disney World last year.

“We’re doing pretty great,” Howell says.

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